Every now and again, Stuff Goes Wrong.
Sometimes I might be mid way through making something, and find there’s a flaw in the wood that means I can’t do what I had originally planned. Often I can salvage it though; that’s the beauty of not working to a plan!
More often, I just get carried away. And then I look at the end product and realise that no-one would want to use it! I remember getting totally absorbed in adding ribs to a butt plug; when I looked at the finished product it made me wince. It would have been like sticking a pine cone up there. I mean, there are people out there into that, and I’m not gonna kink-shame, but… It made me cross my legs!
I did it again working on a slim piece of hazel recently. “Ooh,” I thought. “That would make a nice set of beads,”. Well, wooden beads are tricky. You don’t want “free” beads on a string – they’re hard to clean effectively. The string and drilled holes are breeding grounds for bacteria. This is where silicone comes into its own; although it’s crap for the environment, it’s good for certain kinds of toys, and there’s no denying that. It’s flexible and easy to clean.
So, I made the branch into rigid beads – a sort of beaded wand. Starting small, graduating up.
Looks okay, doesn’t it?
Yeah. Then imagine what could happen if someone was a bit too enthusiastic with it! Ironically bigger, blunter toys are way less likely to cause injury that something slim and pointy like this. It’s such a bad idea to use it with vigour somewhere delicate. Time for a rethink… I don’t want to scrap the idea totally, so perhaps it’ll get reworked somehow, but alas I suspect this one is a write-off. Lesson learned – and at least it’s at my expense, not someone else’s.
What do you think I could do with it (and don’t say “stick it up your …”, that’s what it’s intended for!)?
